Counter-buffing machine.



N. A. MONFILS.

COUNTER BUFFING MACHINE. APPLICATION FILED MAB. 1.191s.

Patented Sept. 9, 1913.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

mmsss.

mzneasesx N. A. MONPILS.

COUNTER BUFFING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED MAR.1, 191a.

1,072,868, Patented Sept. 9, 1913.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

mmmn N. A. MONFILS.

COUNTER BUFFING MACHINE.

' APPLICATION FILED MAR. 1, 191a.

Patented 3919119, 1913.

4 SHEET5 SHBET 3.

I III 11/11/1171 i \u \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\w I XII/111111114 IIIIIl/IIIII/I N. A. MONFILS.

COUNTER BUFFING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED 111.11. 1, 1913.

51,072,868 Patented Sept. 9,1913.

4 SHEETS-SHEET4.

Ill 11- Wine-61965;

To all whom it ma concern:

ter, to curl up, at its edge portion, so that,

' a bevel for a considerable distance from the are liable to be partly or wholly severed. I

. .NAPOL'EON A. MONFILS OF HAVERHILL, MASSASHUSETTS.

GOUNTER-BUFFING MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented sea. a, ram.

Be it known t at I, NAPOLEON A. MonraLs, a citizen of the United States, residing at Haverhill, in th'ecounty of Essex and State, of Massachusetts, have invented an lmprovement in Counter-Buffing Machines, of which the following is a specification.

In the manufacture of counters for shoes, it is customary to skive the edge portions thereof, so that said portions will be thinned down to a comparatively sharp edge, the scarf usually extending a short .distance only from the edge. When a counter is thus uniformly skived, its ends or corner portions are not skived or reduced in thickness to the extent desired, but a sharp angle is left between the inner surface of the counter and the beveled or skived portion which is likely to cause discomfort to the wearer .of the shoe in which the counter is placed. It is, therefore, desirable to have the end portions of counters, which have already been skived in the usual manner, gradually reduced in thickness from points at considerable distances fronrthe vertices of the corners or ends. As far as I am aware, it has been found impractical so to, reduce the end portions of a counter in thickness with the skiving knife of a skiving machine, for various reasons, one of which is that there is considerable tendency, on the part of the counif it is attempted to reduce the thickness on corner by re-skiving with a skiving knife, the previously skived portions at thecorner am of the opinion that the furtherreduction in thickness of the end. portions of the counter may best be accomplished by a buffing operation, and the principal object of my invention is to provide a machine for automatically buffing the end portions of skived counters so that a long scarfed surface will be formed on each of said portions, which extends from the extreme end of the corner of the counter, and in combination therewith, an improved means for automatically feeding the counters from a stack, so that the constant attention of the operator will not be necessary. I accomplish this object by the means shown in the accompanying drawing, in which, 7

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a counter bufling machine made according to my invention. vFig. 2 is a plan view thereof.

App on men Match 1, 13.13- e iall a 751.41

.aad-e are detai se t o iews o the ghe oper ting me ha i m, F ig- 3 ing a e on on line e, f.. .ig- 4, and Fig. 4 being a SB tiQH on line b--b of Fig. 3. Fig. 5 is a detail view of the counter support. Figs. .6 and 7 are detail views of a counter after it has been operated on .by said mechanism. Fig. 8 is a plan view of the machine showing the parts in a different position from that of Fig. 2. Figs. 9 to 18 inclusive are detail views of the counter feeding mechanism, showing the parts in different positions. Figs. 19 and 20 are detail views showing the operation of the buffing wheel. Fig. 21 is a detail view of the counter magazine gate. 7

In the drawing the frame 1 ofthe machine has a main-shaft 2 journaled in the lower portion thereof, beneath the table 3, of the machine, said shaft being driven by any by a pair of links 14, to a pair of levers 16,

said levers being mounted on the under side of the table 3 to swing upon pivots 18. A 'pair of shafts 20 are rotatably mounted respectively in right angularly shaped arms 21, the latter being mounted on base-plates 22 to swing vertically upon horizontal pivots 23 between .two pairs of vertically projecting guiding lugs 24 and 25, formed integral with said base-plates 22, the adjacent surfaces of said lugs having bearing surfaces between which said arms are fitted, so that they will assist the pivots 2,3 in. holding said arms against lateral strain. The upper ends .of the lugs 25 are provided with cross-bars 26,

in which stop screws 27 are mounted to limit of the table, whereby said blocks 28 may be adjusted toward and from each other and may be clamped in the positions desired. Each block 28 has a vertically projecting pivot 32 centrally mounted therein, which extends through the plate 22 supported thereon and acts as a pivot therefor, arcshaped slots being provided in said plates 22 through which the bolts 29 extend, so that the latter may be readily loosened to adjust the blocks 28, and oscillation of said plates 22 about said pivots 32 is permitted.

Pins 34 are mounted in the base-plates 2-2 and project through arc-shaped slots in the blocks 28 and the lower end portions of said pins. are extended into slots which are formed in the ends of the levers 16, so that, when said levers are swung on their pivots by the action of the cam 8, through levers 10 and links 14, said pins 34 will be oscillated in said slots, causing oscillation of the base'plates22 about their pivots 32.

Pulleys 38 are mounted on the outer ends of the shafts 20 and belts 40 are extended about said pulleys, and about corresponding pulleys 42 on the main shaft, spring-actuated belt-tighteners 44 being provided to maintain a practically constant tension on the belts, and at the same time permitting the limited swinging movement of the pulleys 38, with relation to the pulleys 40, which will be caused by the oscillation of the plates Buffing-wheels 46 are mounted on the inner ends of the shafts 20 beyond the ends of arms 21, said wheels being covered with an ordinary abrading material.

With arrangement as thus far described, the shaft 20 is constantly driven, and, on each rotation of the cam-shaft 4, the shafts 20 will be caused to make one complete oscillation, moving said butting-wheels 46 from the full line position of Fig. 8 to the dotted line position of the same figure, and returning.

A door 48 is mounted on a pivot 50 at one side of a correspondingly shaped aperture in the machine table 3, into which said door is adapted to fit, so that said door may swing downwardly from its normal horizontal position to discharge the counter, as hereafter described. A cam 52 is mounted on the shaft 4, and a cam-lever 56 is mounted on a pivot 58 on the under side of the table, one end of said lever 56 having a cam roll extending into a cam path on said cam 52, and the other end being connected by a link 60 to a lever 62 pivoted at 64 on the under side of the table, the opposite end of the lever 62 from the link 60 being loosely connected to the under side of the door 48, so that, when the end of the lever 56, which engages the cam, is lowered, the lever 62 will be moved, so as to swing down the door to the posit-ion of Fig. 9. A stopbracket 49 is provided on the table 3 which projects tance from the table than the thickness over the surface of the door at its free edge. A flexible metal plate 66 is secured at its middle portion to the upper surface of the door 48, and a pair of set-screws 68 extend through said door and engage said plate 66 near its ends, so that, by means of said setscrews, the end portions of said plate 66 may be raised to hold them in different inclined positions, as best shown in Fig. 5. A cam 70 is also mounted on the cam-shaft 4, and a cam-linger 72 is reciprocally mounted on the under side of the table, one end thereof being arranged in engagement with said cam 70 and the other being pivotally connected to a lever 74, which is mounted on a pivot 76, on the under side of the table. The opposite end of the lever 74 from the finger 72 is arranged to engage, by means of a pin and slot connection, a carrier 78, which is reciprocally mounted in guideways in the table to move from front to rear at stack therein while laid flat. Said counter magazine comprises a pair of oppositely disposed, vertically extending guides 81, se-

cured to slotted brackets 82, which are adjustably secured by bolts 83 to the table 3,

'so that they may be adjusted toward and from each other according to the length of the counters, said guides being formed to correspond to' the shape of the end portion of the ordinary counter and being so supported that their lower ends are a short distance from the table surface. A vertically adjustable gate 92 is secured on the rear side of each guide 81, which is arranged so that its lower edge is at a slightly greater dis;

0 the counters to be operated on.

A lever 84 is pivotally mounted at its lower end on a pivot 85 mounted in a bracket 87 beneath the table, and, at its upper end, is loosely connected, by a pin and slot connection, to a separating finger 86, which rests on the upper surface of the feeding slide 80. A spring 88 is connected to the lever 84 at one end and to the frame at the other and normally acts to hold said lever 84 in engagement with a, pin 89 mounted on the under side of the sliding carrier 78. A pair of guiding fingers 90 are mounted on the guiding lugs 25 and extend divergent-1y toward the counter magazine with their lower edges close to the surface of the table.

The operation of the above described machineis as follows :The counter magazine which is mounted to actto swing the lever 84 in the same direction. The stop-pin 89 engages the lever 84 ata point adjacent the pivot of said lever, so that, as the pin is carried forward by the carrier 7 8, the plate 86', which is engaged by the end of said lever 84, will be moved forwardly considerably faster than will the slide 80, which is directly mounted on the carrier 78. As a result, the plate 86 will reach the stack of coun ers considerably in advance of the slide 80, as indicated in Fig. 12. The thickness of slide 80 is slightly less than the thicknessof the counters, so that the plate 86, which rests thereon, is held slightly below the level of the under side of the second counter in the stack, the front end of'the plate 86 being beveled on its upper side to a blunt edge, and, as

the edge portion of the counter is usually rounded, or curled upward, to a slight extent, by the dieing-out operation, the bev-. eled end of the plate 86 will pass beneath the second counter, and above the bottom counter :20, as indicated in Fig. 14, and, as it continues to advance, will lift slightly the stack of counters in the magazine, as s iown in Figs. 15 and 16. This function will be performed before the feed slide 80- engages the lower counter, which will occur immediately thereafter, further advance of the plate 86 being prevented by the engagement of the lever 84 with the end of the slot in the table in which it swings. The advance movement of the feed slide 80 is continued, and the bottom counter is pushed from beneath the stack onto the supporting plate,

until its edge opposite that engaged by the feed slide engages the stop bracket -il9 and is firmly held therebetyveen, variations in the widths of the. counters being compensated for by adjusting the stop bracket 49.

The separating plate, operating in the inannerabove described, is advantageous for the following reasons :-There would be a strong frictional engagement between the bottom counter and the one next above it,

if'the former were pushed from beneath the stack with the weight of the other counters in the stack resting thereon, so that, under these conditions, the frictional engagement with the next counter above wouldbe likely to cause the latter to be pushed along also, and, as the edges of the counters are sklved, the edges ofthese two counters would be liable to become wedged beneath the gate 92,

a; that the feeding mechanism would become clogged. With the above described construction, however, the separating finger passes 'between the two counters at the bottom of the stack, so that not only is the skived' edge of the second counter raised Well above the bottom of the gate 92, but its frictional engagement with the bottom counter will be removed, so that, when the latter is pushed from beneath the stack, it will be slid between two metal surfaces, and will have no tendency to move the counter directly above.

The cams on the shaft 4 are relatively timed, so that, by the time the counter has been pushed against the stop bracket 49, the shafts 2O will'begin to swing to carry the bailing-wheels 4e forwardly, so that they will be carried across the corner, or end porti'onsof the counter, which has been fed from the magazine. The arrangement is such that the angular surface of the counter, adjacent the skived portion at the end or corner will be removed by the butting wheels, as indicated in Fig. 5, so that a long bevel or scarred surface will be formed on the ends of the counter, or it will be gradually reduced in thickness from a point some distance from its ends, as indicated in Figs. 6 and 7. The greater portion of the material will be removed as the wheels are advanced and, on the return movement, the buffed surface'will be finished smooth.

The direction in which the wheels 48 are rotated, when oscillated as described, is of vital importance. It frequently happens that the corner portion of the counter will,

become curled or bent up to an extent, as

indicated in Fig. 19, and if a wheel is. ro-

in which the wheel is advanced bodily, then 7 the wheel will act to press the bentup-per portion flat, and to hold it in this pos1t1on while the butting operation 18 belng performed, as indicated in Fig. 19.

To describe the operation more specifically, each wheel is swung in practice about a center which is located approximately in line with :1- produced bisector of the angle between the side and end edges of the counter, beyond said angle, so that the wheel first engages the counter at a distance from the extreme vertex of the angle and presses down the bent-up portion, as it passes onto the counter, as indicated in Figs. 19 and 20,

' &

so that, by the time the Wheel is engaging the counter throughout nearly its entire width, the counter will be pressed fiat and will remain flat during the continued ad-' vanced and return movement of the Wheel.

After the bufiing operation has been finished and the bufiing-wheels are moved out of engagement with the counter, as they are returned to their normal positions, the lever 56 will be operated, swinging the door 48 downwardly and discharging the counter into a suitable receptacle beneath the table. At the same time the feed slide 80 will be drawn back by spring 73, and during the latter part of this return movement the separating plate 86 will be withdrawn from beneath the stack of counters and returned to its initial position, and the door 48 will also be raised to its initial position during the return movement of the feeding mechanism. The parts are thus timed to operate, so that, during each complete rotation of the cam-shaft 4, a counter will be fed from beneath the stack onto the counter support and will there be held while the constantly driven bufiing wheels are swung forward and back thereover and then will be discharged through the table and the parts returned to their starting positions. In the operation of the machine, therefore, it is merely necessary for the attendant to keep the magazine suiiiciently filled with counters, and the operation proceeds automatically. i

The bufling-wheels 46" are constantly supported and the frames 21 constantly held against the stop screws 27 by the action of the belt tighteners 44 upon the belts 42, and to vary the quantity of material to be removed from a counter, the screws 27 may be adjusted. The angle of the surface which is buffed off may be varied by adjusting the screws 68 to raise or lower the ends of the supporting plate (36 and the length of the scarfed surface may be varied, or adjustments for counters lengths, or unequal lengths from the middle, by adjusting the blocks 28 to bring the wheels 46 nearer together or farther apart.

While I have shown a preferred embodiment of my invention, various changes therein may be made without detracting materially from its advantages, or departing from the spirit and scope of my invention.

I claim 1. In a counter buffing machine, a counter of different port, a buffing wheel mounted on each shaft,

means to swing said shafts from initial positions at each side of said support, to carry said wheels into engagement with, and across the end portions of a counter held on said support, means constantly to rotate each Wheel so that its work-engaging surface, at the point of engagement with the counter, moves in the opposite direction to that in which its shaft is swung, as

it is moved from its initial position, and

means to return said shafts to their initial positions, substantially as described.

4. In a counter buffing machine, a counter support for holding a counter approximately fiat and having upwardly inclined supporting portions for the end portions of the counter, a pair of buffing-wheels, and means simultaneously to rotate said Wheels and to move them bodily"over'said inclined supporting portions in engagement with the portions of a counter supported thereby,

substantially as described.

5. In a counter buffing machine, a counter support for holding a counter approxi-- mately fiat and having upwardly inclined supporting portions for the end portions of the counter, means to vary the inclination of said supporting portions, a pair of buffingwheels, and means simultaneously to rotate said wheels and to move them bodilyover said inclined supporting portions inengagement with the portions of a counter supported thereby, substantiallv as described.

6. In a counter buffing machine, a frame, a counter support pivotally mounted on said frame and normally held in counter-receiving position, a feeding device, means to operate said feeding device to deliver a counter to said support when in normal position and to hold it thereon, a pair of buffing-Wheels, means to drive said wheels, and means to move them bodily over the end portions of the counter to buff the same, andmeans thereafter to move said support on its pivot to discharge the counter therefrom, substantially. as described.

7 In a counter bufiing machine, a counter support for holding a counter 1n an approximately horizontalposition, a. pair of holders pivotally mounted to swing about axes extending vertically with relation to said support, oppositely. disposed shafts mounted in said holders having bufling- Wheels mounted on their adjacent ends, and means to oscillate said holders to carry said wheels into and out of operative engage-V ment With a counter held on said support, substantially as described.

8. In a counter bufiing machine, a counter support for holding a counter in an approximately horizontal position, a pair of Wheels mounted on their adjacent ends,

means to oscillate said holders to carry said Wheels into and out of operative engagement With a counter held on said support, and means permitting adjustment of said 2 holders toward and from said support, sub-.

stantially as described.

79. In a counter bufing machine, a hori- 'zontally disposed counter support,abracket pivotally. supported to swing vertically, a shaft mounted in said bracket having a bufling-Wheel arranged to be held over said support at one side of the pivot of said bracket and having a driving pulley at the other side of said pivot, a stop for limiting the upward swinging movement of said bracket, to carry said Wheel from said support, a belt for driving said pulley, an automa tic belt tightener for engaging said belt, and means to oscillate said bracket, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses. NAPOLEON A. MONFILS. Witnesses:

L. H. HARRIMAN, H. B. DAVIS. 

